Targeted by Stephen Hunter

[Full disclosure right up front: Hunter’s Bob Lee Swagger books sit alone at the top as my favorite character series. Pretty sure I’ll like this latest installment]

Bob Lee is 74y now. Spend his days at his Idaho ranch splitting time between self-reflection in his rocking chair on his porch or fiddling around with rifles and ammunition because that’s what he does, that's what he is.

No matter how hard Bob Lee tried to shun the limelight, taking out Juba the Sniper (see 'Game of Snipers') in a sniper showdown means the press just will not leave him alone. And his notoriety with the gun has made him a bit of a cultural icon. Elected officials, unfortunately, prefer a more peaceable populace where icons should be the negotiators and law makers who think Neanderthals like Swagger need to just go away.

The elder stateswoman in the US House, Charlotte Venable, chairs the House Judicial Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism. All House members, as we know, seek the limelight of the 30 second sound bite and the Sunday talk show circuit. In Swagger, she has the perfect foil to haul into her committee chambers to show the country just how wrong it is to deal with terrorists via the business end of a gun vs. other more ‘civil’ solutions. Ergo . . . Bob Lee gets subpoenaed. Let the agendas begin.

In deference to Bob Lee’s injuries from his confrontation with Juba, Rep. Venable has agreed to hold the hearings in Boise.

All that remains of the Shishani clan is Vakha and four nephews. The Shishanis are Chechen who were near eliminated when the Russians stormed that Moscow theater killing the terrorists along with about half the hostages. Vakha and his nephews fled and made it to NYC where they got by doing hard work for some Russian Mafia groups in the area. They were hired to transport a shipment of heroin bound for Mexico, but Vahka saw the shipment as a gift for them to bankroll the Shishani family as players in the US. 

A semi riding along an Idaho interstate well under the speed limit is unusual. Most truckers tend to drive 15-20mph above the limit. An Idaho state trooper pulls them over. Vahka tells the nephews to be cool. A few things about their paperwork were curious so the trooper calls for backup. The trailer doors are opened, and a hothead nephew takes out the trooper. A gun battle ensues and the Shishanis are taken in. Given that they were carrying forged governmental papers secured them a trip to an Idaho prison until formal proceedings can begin.

The Russian mafia folks are pissed that their delivery was hijacked. The Mexican cartel is also pissed that the product they’ve purchased, while not found in the truck, is still in the wind. A for-hire merc is given two tasks. First, take out the Shishanis. Second, if he can, get the lost product back. The guy goes by the name of Delta in reference to an earlier training stop in his career.

Bob Lee is facing what looks like two weeks of hearings. While the Committee of eight Representatives state up front that Bob Lee is not ‘on trial’, the progress of each day sure seems like he’s on trial and prison is the likely outcome. Representative Baker, a punk of a schmuck who sees the hearing as his ticket to the Senate, pulls some trivial point from an obscure law about the ammunition Bob Lee used to take out Juba. Saying it was experimental and un-approved by the military, Bob Lee effectively put the public in danger if a bullet was off target. ‘Wanton Endangerment’. Baker wants to send that detail to the DOJ who, given the current political winds, would likely put Bob Lee behind bars.

The hearings make for some engrossing daytime TV. Even behind bars. Vahka works up a plan. First, get them transferred to another facility. Second, during the transfer, take over the bus and crash the hearings. Third, take a bucketload of hostages and use them as their ticket home.

While Vahka has watched the hearings and respects Bob Lee’s career, a 74yo man in a wheelchair isn’t an obstacle. And fans of Bob Lee Swagger know that is the wrong assumption to make. Not to mention that Delta is lying in wait an opportunity.

Hunter presents this story as three parts. Part 1: The Set Up. Bob Lee, the Committee, the Shishani’s theft of the heroin, Delta’s assignment. Part 2: The Hearings. Part 3: The Takedown. Some of the best repartee occurs between Reps Baker and Venable with Bob Lee. Venable is a tough old battleax of a woman. Vain, foul mouth. Loves her vodka almost as much as she loves the power she wields. She thinks Baker is just another Harvard twit, but he’s useful for her purposes. The Shishais are ultraviolent with little care for human life. Delta? We don’t really know much about him (makes one wonder if he’ll show up in the next Bob Lee book, if there is one. He is, after all 74 years old).

The set-up introduces us to the players. The Hearings are an entertaining back and forth between opposites on all things gun related. The Takedown is a breathless dash over the course of about an hour before sunrise. You know that when Hunter starts inserting the time of day for each chapter that shit is about to get real.

If you’ve never read any of the novels by Stephan Hunter, listen carefully: no one (not Lee Child, not Brad Thor, not Jack Carr, etc.) can develop plot and characters and then stage a ‘takedown’ like Hunter. When I say breathless, I mean breathless. You will, like me, find yourself holding your breath. Start too late in the evening and you’ll get jerked back to reality when you realize the clock says 130am. First Hunter book I read was iSniper and have not looked back. Another stunning story from a thriller writer without peer.

Most of Hunter’s earlier books were published by Random House. I don’t know anything about the switch, but Targeted is published by one of my favorites, Emily Bestler Books. Again, boys and girls. Pay attention to those publishers. Emily Bestler Books.

Available January 18, 2022. Get your order in now. 

 And Thanks to the GREAT FOLKS at Atria/Emily Bestler Books for the advance reader copy. I audibly gasped with I opened the package containing the book.

East Coast Don

 

BTW: Hunter expertly weaves in a backstory of how the Swagger family 'began' in the Revolutionary War era and ended up in Arkansas. Quite interesting.